Black stallions
in the first Widowmaker armor, astride one of the black stallions, by Raymond Swanland]] The '''black stallions' are a special breed of giant, sorcery-enhanced horses that were developed personally by the Lady in the fullness of her powers at the Tower at Charm. The horses are enormous, glossy black, and possessed of incredible stamina and speed. One of these black stallions can run at a flat gallop for days, faster than any normal horse, and not tire out. They are also remarkably intelligent. According to the Lady their lifespan is around forty years. In the Lady's Empire and beyond, they were "precious beyond belief" and priceless. They were only given to the "greatest champions" of her Empire, and were most commonly seen as mounts for the Ten Who Were Taken and the new Taken. Later, in Shadow Games, the Lady granted 8 of the beasts to Croaker. ''The Black Company'' In the The Black Company, the first black stallion seen by Croaker and mentioned in his Annals was the one carrying a mysterious rider on the Avenue of the Syndics in Beryl, at the head of a procession of 100 armed, foreign veterans. The rider turned out to be Soulcatcher the legate from the Lady's Empire. The black stallions appeared prominently at the Battle of Charm. In the midst of the battle, Feather, one of the new Taken, leaped off a wall riding one of the black stallions, and made a safe landing that would have killed any normal horse. A few minutes later, Soulcatcher kicked Journey of his own black stallion and commandeered the beast. Croaker and the Lady each rode a black stallion in pursuit of the traitor. They charged through the Rebel encampment and into the countryside, through one of the valleys west of Charm. The pursuit was so intense that the stallions belonging to Croaker and the Lady ran themselves to death, both with "fist-sized black burns upon their throats". ''Shadow Games'' When Lady secretly abdicated her Empire and headed south with the Black Company in Shadow Games, she gifted eight such horses along with one of her iron carriages to Croaker. After they reached Taglios and scouted southward, Croaker's black stallion kept him away from a sizable rabble of Shadowlanders who had been sent to assassinate him by six of Longshadow's shadowweavers. Throughout the Books of the South and the Books of Glittering Stone, the stallions succumbed to injury until only two remained. One of those killed disappeared from the Company during their defeat at the Battle of Dejagore. The beast was claimed by Shadowspinner in time for the Siege of Dejagore. Loftus attempted to assassinate Shadowspinner by firing One-Eye's spear from a ballista, but the weapon passed through the stallion's shoulder instead of its rider. Although a normal horse would have perished in moments, this animal had been magically bred. The sorcery in its bones conflicted with the spells from the spear, causing it to die an agonizing death from a wound that "glowed red, flickered" and spread across its flesh. ''Water Sleeps'' The last two black stallions are stolen by Soulcatcher, after she trapped the Company leadership in the cave of the ancients beneath the glittering plain. She and Willow Swan ride the beasts off the plain back into the homeworld. By the time of Water Sleeps, only one stallion remained; it was with Mogaba, and was then brought back to Taglios so Soulcatcher could have ready access to it. This particular horse, however, is the one that Sleepy used to ride. It recognized Sleepy, seeing through her disguise, and even winked at her when Mogaba's cavalry passed her on the road to the Shadowgate. The horse later broke out of its stall in Taglios and ran hundreds of miles to rejoin Sleepy. ''Soldiers Live'' By the events of Soldiers Live, only the single black stallion remained with the Company. It was also the only known survivor of the entire group of eight which had made the southward trip from the Tower at Charm in Shadow Games. It was reserved primarily for Sleepy, the Captain, but was also ridden by Tobo as well. Category:Animals